National Identification Number - Pakistan

Pakistan

Since the 1960s, Pakistan has been issuing National Identity Card (commonly known by the acronym, NIC) numbers to its citizens. These numbers are assigned at birth when the parents complete the child's birth registration form (B-Form), and then a National Identity Card (NIC) with the same number is issued at the age of 18. Until, 2001 NIC numbers were 11 digits long. In 2001-2002, the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA), started issuing 13-digit NIC numbers along with their new biometric ID cards. The first 5 digits are based on the applicant's locality, the next 7 are serial numbers, and the last digit is a check digit. The last digit also indicates the gender of the applicant; an even number indicates a Female and an odd number indicates a Male. The old numbers are invalid as of 2004.

As of 2012 NADRA has started to issue new SMART ID Cards which include an encyrpted chip on the front. The SMART Card plan is to be extended to disperes social benifits as well as to provide the heirs of the card to get life insurance at the death of the card holder. The price of the card is high but is said to be gone low once the initial costs of development of a secure encrypted informations system is recovered. Apart from the benefits to attract there are news on social media about the possible transfer of data from the interior ministry to the Inter-Services Intelligence which doesn't come under the civic scruitny as well as that of under any military laws under any current legislation.

Every citizen is required to have a NIC number, and the number is required for many activities such as paying taxes, opening a bank account, getting a utility connection (phone, cell phone, gas, electricity), etc. However, since a majority of births in the country are not registered, and a large number of Pakistanis do not conduct any of the activities described above, most do not have ID cards. Obtaining an NIC card also costs 100 rupees (US$ 1.66 - almost the average daily income), and this inevitably reduces the number of people who can afford it. In 2006, NADRA announced that it had issued 50 million CNIC (the C standing for Computerized) numbers, which is approximately one-third of the population. In June 2008, the federal government announced it would start issuing CNIC cards for free.

In addition to NIC/CNIC companies and individuals in business and employment with taxable income are required to register with Central Board of Revenue and have their National Tax Number (commonly known as NTN). This tax number is mainly used only for taxation purposes and is rarely used otherwise as compared to other countries. New NTN certificates are being issued with computerized NIC numbers and old NTN certificates bearing old NIC numbers will become invalid.